Susan Pawley

It was a pleasure to be involved in the “voices of belonging” podcast series and talk about our experiences of creating community for maths and stats students at a distance university.

#SoTL #maths #openuniversity

We’re thrilled to welcome Dr @farhanagokhool.bsky.social (University of Bedfordshire) as our second keynote at #UKSTEMConf25!
She’ll share her insights around maths anxiety, and how inclusive, empathetic support can break down barriers for underrepresented & neurodiverse STEM learners.

A6 Utilising distance methods and block teaching so that students can study and work at the same time. Asynchronous teaching. How to assess equitably but at a distance. #LTHEChat

A5 The time, funding and respect for teaching focused academics and third space practitioners to improve teaching and learning within universities. #LTHEChat

Some of my best ideas have come out of corridor conversations - they have also probably been some of my wackiest.

A4 At the Open University our students have become younger, more likely to study full time, rather than part time which was our norm. They are also more likely to be working as well as studying. They are more likely to study for career purposes than interest. #LTHEChat

A3 The main loss for me is "corridor conversations" with my colleagues. As we all spend more time working from home, there is less chance to innovate during those random conversations that happen when you bump into people on campus. #LTHECHat.

A2 Assessment has started to become outcome driven rather than test driven, so we no longer assess just for the sake of it, but think about why, what and how. This means that assessment has become more equitable and rewards those who learn well rather than test well. #LTHEChat.

A2 The benefits and equity that good online teaching can give students. #LTHEChat

A1 Student focused teaching, compassionate assessment and equity. #LTHEchat

We've also incorporated regular breaks into the schedule, giving participants time to step away from their day job, close other windows, and fully absorb the latest in STEM-based scholarship.
What’s the most engaging online event you have attended?

We've asked them to move away from traditional presentations and create sessions that will immerse attendees in their work, providing engaging experiences with plenty of room for discussion and debate.

picture of welcome slide with an image of padlet embedded with messages from attendees of conference

Over the next two days, we are hosting the 14th Annual eSTEeM Conference, but this year, it's going to be different. Held online, we've challenged our presenters to find innovative and engaging ways to share their scholarship.

@tavoer8.bsky.social I can’t believe I got caught up in something else and forgot to log on. I’ll look forward to going through the chat tomorrow

@tavoer8.bsky.social is inspiring- should be an excellent #LTHEchat. Fingers crossed I make this one.

Study desk with laptop, notebook and calendar.

Join us for this week’s #LTHEchat which will explore strategies to integrate study skills into the curriculum, with Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel @drckt.bsky.social and Emily Nordmann @emilynordmann.bsky.social on Wednesday 8-9pm GMT. Read the blog post at: lthechat.com/2025/03/16/l...

Pink, purple and white wildflowers are in front of a white OU sign with the blue logo

Guess who just enrolled on Bluesky? 🤔

[Hint: it's us]

2/ This St David’s Day, we’re sharing an exciting OU eSTEeM project, investigating the factors which affect student engagement in bilingual Welsh/English distance-learning maths 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿➕

Find out more 👉🏻 tinyurl.com/mr2hfeb4

eSTEeM Centre for Scholarship and Innovation

1/ eSTEeM is the OU’s Centre for Scholarship & Innovation in STEM, researching new ways to enhance teaching & learning in open and distance education 📚

🔗 eSTEeM: tinyurl.com/da9apyzf

During my induction, I was introduced to second life as the saviour to community for distance learning. Never really caught on, we moved to introducing online tutorials quite soon afterwards and the need evaporated.

#LTHEchat 320: “Alas poor <insert fave tool> , I knew it well” – The changing landscape of online tools. Led by Emma Duke Williams @emmadw.bsky.social and Sarah Honeychurch @nomadwarmachine@bsky.social We have all been there, a digital tool you have used suddenly changes markedly, becomes paid for rat…

#LoveLD Tonight's #LTHEchat - tech tools we have loved and lost - and the ones it is worth getting to know: lthechat.com/2025/02/24/l...

Hosting #LTHEchat 318: Designing for Diverse Learners - Dr Lee Fallin Last week we took Designing for Diverse Learners to #LTHEchat. Catch up on the dialogue or read the full blog here.

Hosting #LTHEchat 318: Designing for Diverse Learners:

A wonderful resource of #sotl, insight and amazing innovation.

#LTHEchat 319: Winning the Learning Game with Game-based Learning Led by Liz Cable @lizcable.bsky.social There are a lot of terms associated with the use of games in learning, teaching and assessment. We’ve had previous #LTHEchats tagged game-based learning, gami…

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for #LTHEchat, which will explore play-based learning with @lizcable.bsky.social on Wednesday 8-9pm GMT/BST. Read the blog post at: lthechat.com/2025/02/17/l...

1/ Happy Random Acts of Kindness Day! ❤️

Why not celebrate by spreading kindness and experimenting in the kitchen? 🍳

Cooking isn’t just about feeding mouths — it’s a meaningful way to connect with others. Plus, it sneaks in a bit of maths and creativity too! 🤏🏻

The Open University

Finally paper ten: Student use of asynchronous Rapid
Response Forums to support continuous assessment, written by Cath brown (@notoriouscath.bsky.social), Susan Pawley and Claudi Thomas:

doi.org/10.21954/ou....

The Open University

Paper nine: Understanding passive withdrawal behaviour on an introductory science module, written by Vic Pearson, Maria Velasco and Linda Moore:

doi.org/10.21954/ou....

The Open University

Paper eight: Building a sense of belonging to aid retention at a distance learning, stage-2 Physics module, written by Anne-Katrin Klehe:

doi.org/10.21954/ou....

The third group of papers within our proceedings considers student support- how we can help our students to succeed without changing the teaching or assessment and why do our students stop engaging. The papers were written in a supportive environment giving a positive experience to authors #SoTL

The Open University

Paper six: Can we reduce anxiety of students sitting online exams?, written by Fiona Moorman, Gemma Warriner and Becca Whitehead:

doi.org/10.21954/ou....